The Asian Development Bank (ADB) opens its annual meeting today in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.

It's the first time the ABD and its 67 member states are holding the meeting in Central Asia.

Some 3,000 delegates including heads of state, central bankers, and finance ministers, are expected to attend the four-day meeting.

The NGO Forum on the ADB -- a network of 250 civil society organizations monitoring the bank's operations -- is boycotting the meeting in protest over the human rights record of Uzbek President Islam Karimov.